Jonas Bendiksen

Jonas Bendiksen is a photographer who was born in 1977 in Norway. He began his career at the age of 19 as an intern at Magnum Photo’s London office, before leaving for Russia to pursue his own work as a photojournalist. During the several years he spent there, Bendiksen photographed stories from the fringes of the former Soviet Union, a project that was published as the book Satellites (2006).

Bendiksen’s work often focuses on isolated communities and enclaves. In 2005, with a grant from the Alicia Patterson Foundation, he started working on The Places We Live, a project on the growth of urban slums across the world, which combines still photography, projections and voice recordings to create three-dimensional installations.

Bendiksen has received numerous awards, including the 2003 Infinity Award from the International Center of Photography, New York, second place in the Daily Life Stories for World Press Photo, and first prize in the Pictures of the Year International Awards. His documentary of life in a Nairobi slum, Kibera, published in the Paris Review, won a National Magazine Award in 2007. His editorial clients include National Geographic, Geo, Newsweek, the Independent on Sunday Review, the Sunday Times Magazine, the Telegraph Magazine, and the Rockefeller Foundation.